Gearing Up For Anxiety: Should We Be Worried About Our Children On The Roads?

Ask any parent what they worry about with regards to their children and they will very likely say everything! But when it comes to your kids and the rites of passages in life, such as passing their driving test, there shouldn’t be a reason to be concerned, or should there be? When it comes to preparing our children for the big wide world, we can have a heart to heart discussion with them, we can do our best as parents, but ultimately they will need to make their own mistakes in life, and is driving now harder than it used to be?

The Laws

Although the rates of accidents are on the increase, generally speaking, the laws themselves have become stricter. There is constant debate about lowering the speed limit, and in America, various states have very strict laws, almost to the point of being ludicrous. But some really useful laws put the onus on the driver, such as the lemon law, which is geared towards people who have bought a defective car.

The Amount Of Distractions

This is a big one now, if you go back 20 years, the advent of the GPS was pretty new, but now they are in almost every new car. In addition to this, throw into the mix the amount of people who are using smartphones while driving, and this is a recipe for disaster that highlights the amount of distractions we have in our car now in comparison to years ago. It can be argued that children now, who are almost reliant on their smartphones, will pay more attention to that than they are the road. The act of texting and driving is getting worse. And even if they are driving with their eyes on the road, is their mind somewhere else? And this doesn’t just apply to children, but this applies to everyone now, smartphones are such a distraction that we are all risk of getting in an accident, not just those people who are driving while texting.

The Amount Of Cars On The Road

It’s a fact, plain and simple; there are so many more cars on the road now, so when it comes to teaching your children about healthy driving habits, it’s not just as simple as being safe on the road, as there are more and more people who are risking the lives of everybody on the road so they can get to work on time. We’ve all seen the people who weave in and out of cars on freeways, who have no regard for speed, safety or anyone else around them. Statistically, you are more likely to get in an accident now, even if you have the best intentions on the road. The idea that you need to maintain your focus on the road is usually because you could cause an accident, now it would appear that you need to have your wits about you just in case there is someone else who isn’t focusing on the road. The road is a much more dangerous place now, with people reluctant to let people into another lane, and think nothing of speeding.

So should we be worried about our children on the roads? Naturally, we are going to worry about our children, especially after they’ve just passed their driving test. As the average age of learning to drive is slowly creeping up to the mid-20s, as opposed to 16 or 17, this means that for those more mature drivers means a more mature attitude to the roads. Ultimately we’ve all made mistakes while driving, and it’s always after the first year of passing your test that we learn the most, so it’s a combination of communicating the best practices to our children while also instill in a mature attitude to the road, whatever their age. Alfa Romeo of Larchmont has an array of cars available that would be perfect in helping keep your young adults and teens safe while driving.